You'll thank me!

I have tried LOTS of recipes for Banana Bread and this one is by FAR our new favorite! I've also included a recipe that we just tried for pumpkin bread that was delicious too!
Of course it's 90 degrees today and I don't really want to turn the oven on, but if it's fall where you are, give these a try and let me know what you think!  These are NOT healthy recipes, just to let you know.  I'm sure you can substitute some ingredients to make them more nutritious if you prefer.  For us? We like them just the way they are! :)

Banana Bread

1/4 c. white sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

combine these two ingredients and grease two loaf pans.  Then shake the cinnamon/sugar mixture onto the pans.

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

3-4 VERY ripe bananas, mashed

8 oz of sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 c. flour

(optional) 1/2 c. crushed walnuts

mix the sugar and eggs together until well blended, add the ripe bananas.  In a separate bowl, mix flour with other dry ingredients.  Add the sugar/egg/banana mixture and then the sour cream and vanilla.  

Pour it into the two prepared pans.

For a crumb topping:

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. flour

3 tablespoons of melted butter 

1 tsp cinnamon

Combine until "crumbly" and add it to the top of the loaves before baking.

Bake @ 325 degrees for 70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

PUMPKIN BREAD

2 cups white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup oil

4 eggs

combine until creamy

add in

1 can of solid pack pumpkin (16 oz).

In a separate bowl:

3 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp allspice

Stir the two together and add 1/2 cup water to the mixture.  

Grease two loaf pans (or one bundt pan) and bake at 350 for 65 minutes (or 90 for bundt).

Cream cheese icing:

1 block of cream cheese softened

1/4 c. butter, melted

2 c. powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

There's always time for Cinnamon Rolls!

Recently a friend of mine tweeted that she wished there was an "app" that could take all the blog post ideas in your head and write them for you.  In a dream world, wouldn't that be awesome?!

We've been busy with life and enjoying our spectacular weather, but I wanted to share another recipe with you all.  We had some friends that were in town recently and we invited them over for breakfast.  I made my homemade cinnamon rolls (that my family LOVES).  They got rave reviews and now I'm getting requests for the recipe.  So, here it is! Enjoy!!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 cup warm milk
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon white or brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups bread flour
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
•  
• For the filling:
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans
•  
• For the Icing:
• 1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons milk

Directions

1. If you have a bread machine you can just put it in there: combine water, melted butter, vanilla pudding, warm milk, egg, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast. Set machine to Dough cycle; press Start. And then skip to step 4.
2. If you do NOT have a bread machine, then you need to combine the water, and melted butter with the tablespoon of sugar and the yeast package.  You need to "foam" the yeast.  Mix it well and cover it with plastic wrap while you combine the milk, pudding, and egg together.  (if it does not "foam", you need to start over with another yeast packet).
3. Add your foamed yeast to the milk and pudding mixture.  Then add the four cups of bread flour.  It's important to use bread flour because it has extra gluten in it necessary for the good "dough-y" cinnamon rolls.  Mix until you have a ball of dough. Set it in a clean bowl in a warm place (microwave or under a towel) for about an hour to let the dough rise.  
4. Then, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 17x10 inch rectangle. Spread with softened butter. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans if you want them. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over dough.
5. Roll up dough, beginning with long side. Slice into 16 one inch slices and place in 9x13 buttered pan. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
6. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. While rolls bake, stir together cream cheese, softened butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and milk. Remove rolls from oven and top with frosting.

YUM!!!!

Random Wednesday

Why does the week before Spring Break always feel chaotic?  Is it because I know that there are days of sleeping-in? It's like the weeks before you have a baby; you know it's coming but seems like it takes forever to get here.

I actually haven't even logged on to the computer since Sunday! I had over 25 blog entries to catch up with on my reader.  I have lots of blog post ideas but not the time to write them.  So today you get some random snippets about our home.

Reagan lost her first tooth!! She was so excited! It was VERY wiggly for a few days and I told her "why don't you just grab and pull it out?" So she did.  Easy peezy! The tooth fairy left her a gold dollar coin in her "tooth box" that was on her nightstand.  (It was also really dark and the tooth fairy almost woke her up by dropping the porcelain top to the box onto her nightstand and making a large crash!) The following morning, she asked if she could put her gold coin in her BGMC (mission fund for our church) box.  What a sweet and giving heart she has!

Since Reagan lost her tooth (and has been getting attention for it), Skylar has decided that she wants to lose a tooth too.  She eats apples almost daily to try and make her teeth wiggly.  I don't have the heart to tell her she has at least a year until her teeth start to fall out.

We finally got rid of the cold bug in our house...only to have it revisit us this week.  I'm praying it's just a short, last hoo-rah before spring finally sets in.

Speaking of spring, we are loving the warmer weather and spending more time outside (and the fact that it's lighter later).  I can almost smell summer.

I spent most of last weekend pulling weeds (and dead trees) out of our backyard.  It's no where near finished.  It's a much larger job than I ever imagined.  I had to stop because our trash can was full (and my back hurt like crazy!). After all the weeding is done, I still need to re-plant, and mulch.  *sigh*

I haven't forgotten about the "Ten Dollar Healthy Dinners".  I just want to do it for an entire week so look for it starting Monday.

After the week of recipes and ideas, I will host a giveaway in celebration of our one year blogiversary and over 100 posts! Woo hoo!

Tomorrow is Reagan's "Open House" at school.  She is so thrilled to show us what she's been working on.  It's no coincidence either that the Book Fair just "happens" to be going on.  I guess we will have to make a stop there to check it out on our way home.

I was able to find more peppermint mocha creamer so the crazy week has been a little easier to handle. :)

I hope your week has been going well!
Be blessed!